TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Thursday, Feb. 11, the 42nd day of 2016. There are 324 days lef t in the year.

In 1812, Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting law favoring his Democratic-Republican Party — giving rise to the term “gerrymandering.”

In 1858, a French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, repor ted the first of 18 visions of a lady dressed in white in a grot to near Lourdes.

In 1929, the Lateran Treaty was signed, with Italy recognizing the independence and sovereignty of Vatican City.

In 1937, a six-week-old sit-down strike against General Motors ended, with the company agreeing to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union.

In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement, in which Stalin agreed to declare war against Imperial Japan following Nazi Germany’s capitulation.

In 1963, American author and poet Sylvia Plath was found dead in her London flat, a suicide; she was 30.

In 1972, McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. and Life magazine canceled plans to publish what had turned out to be a fake autobiography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes.

In 1986, Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky was relea sed by the Soviet Union af ter nine years of captivity as par t of an East-West prisoner exchange.

In 1990, South African black activist Nelson Mandela was freed af ter 27 years in captivity.

In 2012, pop singer Whitney Houston, 48, was found dead in a hotel room in Beverly Hills, California.

In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation during a routine morning meeting of Vatican cardinals. (The 85-year-old pontiff was succeeded by Pope Francis.)